Hash Set is a data structure that stores unique elements in an unordered manner and provides highly efficient operations for searching, inserting, and deleting elements. Python Set data type is a built-in implementation of a hash set.
Python sets are implemented using hash tables, where each element is stored as a key in the table with an associated value of None. Hashing ensures that the set operations like add, remove, and lookup are highly efficient, in a constant time O(1).
Important points:
- Hash Set does not allow duplicate values.
- Sets in Python are unordered, because the elements are stored based on their hash values, not by their order of insertion.
- Sets use hashing to provide fast lookups, insertions, and deletions.
- Hash Set are Mutable. You can add or remove elements after creating the set.
- Sets can only store hashable elements, like numbers, strings, and tuples (not lists or dictionaries).
Creating a Hash Set in Python
You can create a set using curly braces {} or the set() constructor.
# Creating a hash set
hs = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
print("Hash Set:", hs)
# Using set() function
hs1 = set([1, 2, 3, 3, 4])
print("Another Hash Set:", hs1)
Basic Operations on Python Hash Set
Adding Elements:
Use the add() method to insert an element into the set.
hs = {1, 2, 3}
hs.add(4)
print("After Adding 4:", hs)
Removing Elements:
You can se these methods to remove items from a set.
- Use remove() to delete an element (raises an error if it doesn't exist).
- Use discard() to delete an element (does not raise an error if the element is missing).
- Use pop() to remove and return a random element.
hs = {1, 2, 3, 4}
hs.remove(2)
hs.discard(5) # No error even though 5 is not in the set
print("After Removing:", hs)
removed_item = hs.pop()
print("Popped Element:", removed_item)
print("Remaining Set:", hs)
Limitations of Hash Sets
- Sets are unordered, so you cannot access elements by index.
- Sets only store immutable (hashable) elements like numbers, strings, and tuples. Lists and dictionaries cannot be stored in a set.
Refer to this article for detailed explanation - Python Set.
